In My Head Grows A Garden

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Government Art Collection

Male figures populate Jake Grewal’s nature-based backgrounds, which start out as plein air sketches compiled during walks near his grandmother’s house in Wales or in London’s leafy parks. As with In my head grows a garden, his figures tend to mirror his likeness, embedding a personal history within his narratives. This is further alluded to by his titles, taken from ongoing thoughts and notes on his phone, all the while remaining purposefully elusive.

Bringing together the language of Romanticism and his South Asian heritage, Jake Grewal explores themes of identity, love, loss, violence and adolescence through a queer gaze, to create a dream-like reality based in nature. As explained by the artist:

Landscape speaks to me as a subject matter as there is so much left open to interpretation. There is space for ambiguity and projection. When I work, I try not to differentiate from portrait to landscape. I try to see things abstractly and enjoy how a landscape could be a portrait and a portrait a landscape. I see no difference between the two.

Jake Grewal studied Fine Art at the University of Brighton (BA, 2012–13) and at the Royal School of Drawing (MA, 2018–19). His work has been shown in the group exhibitions ‘Woon Foundation Prize’, Baltic 39, Newcastle (2016); ‘Looking For Validation’, The Nayland Rock Hotel, London (2019); ‘Full English’, Platform Southwark, London (2019); ‘No Time Like The Present’, Public Gallery, London (2020); and included in Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2020. He was the recipient of a Cass Award at the National Open Art Competition, London (2016).

Places

Subjects

Materials & Techniques

linen, paint, oil, oil paint, oil painting

Artist

Jake Grewal (1994 - )

Title

In My Head Grows A Garden

Date

2019

Medium

oil on linen

Dimensions

height: 56.2 cm; width: 41.0 cm; depth: 1.5 cm

Acquisition

Purchased from the artist March 2021, through the Art XUK project 2020-21

Provenance

The artist; from whom purchased by UK Government Art Collection, 23 March 2021

GAC number

19001